Holding Negligent Hospitals Accountable

Our law firm protects patients' rights

While going to the hospital is never anyone's top choice of activity, most patients breathe a sigh of relief when they arrive. Once you're at the hospital, you have every reason to believe that your medical needs will be taken care of by the nurses and doctors there.

Unfortunately, that's not always the case. Hospital patients may acquire infections or become the victim of surgical errors. They may be discharged early or given the wrong medications. When that happens, it can be difficult to know where to turn.

If you've been hurt due to hospital negligence, a hospital malpractice attorney from The Law Firm of Pajcic & Pajcic can help.

We know how to investigate hospitals for claims of negligence

In order to pursue legal action against the hospital - as opposed to an individual care provider - we need to show that the hospital's own actions led to your injury, or that the injury was caused by the negligence of a hospital employee in the regular course of his or her employment. Here are some circumstances in which a hospital may be held liable for malpractice:

• Failure to implement or enforce proper patient safety procedures
• Giving privileges to a doctor or nurse known to be incompetent
• Failure to appropriately clean or sanitize equipment, leading to infection
• Discharging patients before they are ready, or giving inadequate instructions for follow-up care
• Giving patients the wrong medication or the wrong dose
• Miscommunication leading to procedures being performed on the wrong patient

Not every injury sustained in a hospital is due to medical malpractice per se. A patient may be injured after slipping and falling on a wet floor, which would be covered under premises liability rather than medical malpractice laws. Those specifics may affect the way your case against the hospital proceeds, and you need an experienced attorney to navigate those legal complexities.

Determining the status of hospital employees can complicate cases

When the hospital's own negligence causes a patient's injury, liability is usually fairly clear. However, if an injury was caused by a particular medical provider, the hospital may argue that that person was a contractor rather than an employee. While nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians and other staff are almost always direct employees of the hospitals, many hospital doctors are independent contractors who run their own practices and merely have "privileges" at the hospital.

However, we may be able to show that the doctor who caused your injury was actually an employee - which means the hospital is vicariously liable for his or her malpractice. For example, if the hospital controls the doctor's working hours, fees and vacation time, a court may rule that the doctor is in fact an employee. Or a court may rule that the doctor should be treated as an employee for the purposes of your case if you were led to believe he or she was an employee of the hospital, regardless of the doctor's actual employment status.